Description:

Speaker: Sebastian Poblete Coddou 

Title: Union Bargaining Schemes in the Presence of Labor Market Power

Abstract: There is increasing concern for the exercise of monopsony power in different industries and countries. In this project, I study the role of unions in potentially counteracting wage markdowns. Using data on firms, union, and collective agreements on the entire Chilean manufacturing sector, I propose a bargaining model that allows for two related issues to be studied. First, to separately quantify the components of wages explained by marginal productivity, monopsony power of the form, and bargaining power of the union. Second, to study the role of different bargaining schemes, in particular comparing single firm and union bargaining with unions representing a number of workers across firms. In this presentation, I'll present characteristics and descriptives of the newly acquired data, and discuss the proposal of the bargaining model and estimation strategies.